"I would like to believe that you had a heart!"
"Oh, I have, and bestow little bits of it here and there in a most generous fashion."
"Was I the recipient of one of those little bits?"
She grew white, and said abruptly: "There has been mough of this. I warned you - did I not? - that you were making a mistake when you chose to invest me with all the virtues. Let me advise you to try your fortune with Miss Devenish. She would make you an admirable wife. You might be as possessive as you pleased, and she would love you for it. You can no longer persist in thinking me a suitable bride!"
"Every word you say seems designed to convince me that you are not!"
"Capital!" She did not speak quite steadily, but the smile still curled her lips. "The truth is, my dear Charles, that we have both of us been fools. I at least I should have known better, for I had the advantage of you in having been married before. I admit that I was a little carried away. But I am bored now, confoundedly bored!"
"I envy you!" he said harshly. "Boredom seems a little thing compared with what I have had to suffer at your hands!"
"Your mistake! Boredom is the most damnable of all sufferings!"
"No! The most damnable suffering is to have your faith in one you love slowly killed. But what should you know of that? You don't deal in love!"
"On the contrary, I deal in it most artistically!"